IF MARIJUANA IS MEDICINE, TREAT IT THAT WAY; IF IT ISN'T, THEN FIGURE
OUT WHAT IT IS

Oregonians have consistently signaled their acceptance of marijuana as
a medicine that can alleviate the symptoms of everything from
chemotherapy-induced nausea to severe back pain.

And regardless of voter insistence on this point, the medical case
study regarding marijuana and its effectiveness as a medicine to ease
the symptoms of certain ailments is irrefutable. Who in their right
mind, for instance, would deny a person suffering from cancer access
to marijuana if it would ease that person's suffering?

Yet, the methods by which Oregonians with physician-approved medical
marijuana cards have historically been able to get their hands on
medicinal marijuana are unreliable, unstable and of questionable
legitimacy, and too often closely mimic marijuana culture associated
with the illicit use of the plant as a recreational drug.

Whether or not a dispensary system is the best system for the
medicinal delivery of marijuana to appropriate patients is debatable.
There are other models out there, especially in places such as
Colorado or California.

Unlike those programs, which are evolving into the standard for
medicinal marijuana delivery, Oregon's program is designed to stifle
profit. If, in fact, we can concede that marijuana use as it applies
to certain patients does qualify as medicine -- and we know that many
people do not accept that -- than the notion such medicine must be
manufactured and delivered without a profit motive does not make
sense. If it did, then big pharmaceutical firms such as Bayer Inc.,
Johnson & Johnson and Proctor and Gamble should reorganize as
nonprofit agencies or face business sanctions.

Which raises a legitimate question about state regulation of medicinal
marijuana distribution. It seems to be a one-foot-in, one-foot-out
approach. Ultimately, it acts as a disservice to those who truly need
marijuana as a medicine

That must change.

There are several reasons why the marijuana-as-medicine philosophy has
only marginally caught on with middle America. First, anti-drug
campaigns intended to demonize marijuana have been successful on some
fronts, so the process of changing the impression of marijuana from
that of a dangerous drug to a beneficial medicine is going to take
some time.

Secondly, and most importantly, the burgeoning industry of medicinal
marijuana is being -- or already has been -- hijacked by those who
obviously were deeply immersed in the culture of illicit marijuana
use. Some of the state's leading voices on medical marijuana
dispensaries promote their services through websites and pamphlets
that look like they were cooked up in a Portland drug paraphernalia
shop.

It's a system that favors those who use dopey monikers such as "Stoney
Girl" and "Portlandsterdam," who attempt to develop quality standards
for marijuana that likely make more sense to a college-age hippie than
middle-aged cancer patient.

What clientele, really, are they attempting to attract?